Current forecasts project the lights could be seen as far south as Alabama and California.
Northern lights animate the night sky in September 2022 in Bettles, Alaska. Auroras may be seen much farther south this weekend.May 9, 2024, 4:27 p.m. ET
To maximize your chances of seeing auroras Friday night, find a dark sky location away from city lights. You’ll also want cloud-free skies. Unfortunately, considerable cloud cover will be spread over the Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, although some gaps in the cloud canopy are probable. Clear skies are most likely over the central states and West Coast.
The geomagnetic storm comes when the sun is at its most active in about two decades, and it is expected to remain so for at least the rest of this year. "Depending on how these are staggered, you can expect the activity to last longer," said Rob Steenburgh, a space scientist at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center."Our expectation and the modeling do suggest that they kind of catch up with each other.As of Thursday afternoon, NOAA forecasts predicted a severe geomagnetic storm, rated 4 out of 5.
“These sunspot clusters emerge, and we see hundreds of them a year. But very few of them reach this size and magnetic complexity,” Murtagh said. “What makes it unique here is just that it is so magnetically stressed and magnetically complex.”
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